Night of Jinxes, A Moonlight Dragon Short Story by Tricia Owens

Author:Tricia Owens
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: urban fantasy, occult, shapeshifter, dragon, haunted, curses

~~~~~

While the camera recorded, Melanie and I lay in bed and watched video game walkthroughs on YouTube.

"How are they so good?" she wondered aloud as we watched whoever was playing the game defeat an army of demons with a bunch of complicated maneuvers that likely would have broken my thumb had I been the one holding the game controller.

"I think they play these things over and over until they're experts at it. Then they film themselves. At least, I hope that's what they do. It's too depressing to think they might be this good from the get-go."

"If I were that good, I'd play nothing but RPGs. Ones with cute boys, like Final Fantasy."

"I'd play horror survival just like this." You would have thought I'd had my fill of monsters and ghouls, but apparently not. Or maybe the prospect of blasting them with various weapons and gaming magick was what appealed to me. In the gaming world, I could be powerful without risking life and limb.

Melanie turned onto her side and peered up at me. "Do you ever think that maybe one day, magickal beings will outnumber normal people?"

"God, I hope not. Think about all the crazy things that are out there, Melly. And that's just the things we know about, the things that have been seen in the light. The creatures that could always be in hiding? No thanks. That's way beyond my comfort zone."

"Ugh, that's totally true," she whispered fiercely. "So many monsters. So many things created by black magick. Lots of things are probably out there that shouldn't exist. Like they'd make you go insane if you saw them or heard them."

A shiver crawled over my skin. "I don't want to try to imagine them. You shouldn't either. It'll just give you nightmares."

"I think it might be too late." She rolled over onto her other side, so she faced the bead curtain. "You ever wonder if maybe all the stuff in here might one day attract something like that? Something scary?"

I sat up. "Are you trying to freak me out?" I closed my laptop lid. "My uncle has been running this shop since I was a kid. Nothing came after him."

But of course, as soon as I said it, I had to acknowledge that no one knew what had become of Uncle James. He'd been missing for two years now, which was why I was running Moonlight Pawn.

"I'm just saying, Anne, be extra careful from now on."

She had me spooked, which admittedly wasn't difficult to do considering the circumstances. I slid out of bed. "Come on. It's been a couple of hours. Maybe the camcorder caught something."

I peeked through the beads first, though, just in case I spotted something in motion. Despite my sneakiness, it was no dice. Everything appeared nice and quiet.

Sure it was.

I pushed through the curtain with Melanie right behind me and picked up the camcorder. I depressed the Record button to stop it and then angled the viewfinder so my friend could see it, too.

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